Contact
by Knightfall1138
Summary: Downloaded from an Omega maintenance terminal within the residential quarantine zone.


_Downloaded from Omega Subsection Maintenance Terminal 12-A_

**[C23 – 01:23:56]**

my name is daphne wintervoss i can't make this terminal connect to any other port besides this one. please if anyone can read this im trapped in th e number 12 subsection near the omega clinic. the sign says quarantinebut im not sick. Can someone please let me out i dont have much food left.

**[C23 – 03:54:23]**

/aux - "connect"

/65278485-stanton

/msg – Daniel, if you can read this, I'm sorry. I need your help. No one's come yet.

[pinging "65278485"]

[…]

[…]

[No response.]

[Reattempting.]

**[C23 – 04:43:02]**

It's been more than 3 hours. If your reading this and your not sending help you are killing me.

**[C23 – 05:02:22]**

[Ping received.]

**[C23 – 05:02:43]**

[Ping received.]

**[C23 – 05:03:05]**

[Ping received.]

**[C23 – 05:03:32]**

[Ping received.]

[Cache limit reached. Resetting.]

**[C23 – 10:14:52]**

God damn you.

**[C23 – 17:10:29]**

if this is about money, I can pay. I have 2000 credits in here with me. I don't think anyone else is coming. Ive been hitting the door with this spare pipe and I can tell it hardly makes a sound on the other end. There are noises coming from the air vent but I can't climb up there to see whats making them. Please, I can pay you to get me out of here. However you want it.

**[C23 – 22:37:01]**

X/X/O

O/X/O

X/O/X

–––––

O/O/X

O/X/O

X/O/X

**[C24 – 3:14:45]**

One life should have been enough.

**[C24 – 10:54:56]**

/aux - "connect"

/65278485-stanton

/msg – Daniel, there's no one coming. I know it. You were right. I'm sorry for everything. If by some miracle you receive this, please come for me. The virus spread through the residential area and this subsection sealed itself off. The hallway on the other side was filled with dead turians. I swear I'll give the stuff up, I'll quit tomorrow, baby. I just don't want it to end like this.

[pinging "65278485"]

[…]

[…]

[No response.]

[Reattempting.]

**[C24 – 14:42:11]**

Dying just down the way from a clinic. Just down the street from a shop. The owner was human and I think he was still in there when I passed by. Still is, probably. What I wouldn't give for a packet of crisps or a bottle of water. This is a stupid fucking way to go out.

**[C24 – 15:14:26]**

The lights keep flickering every few minutes. I counted. Three minutes exactly. I wonder what happens that makes them do that. Does one of the trams run nearby? That might be something. Power grid might be rebooting itself every few minutes without the people around to maintain it. Something, something. Even stuck in this little room, I'm always discovering one more thing I know nothing about. It's a pain, suddenly burning to know why the hell the lights are flickering.

I don't like that little things like that seem important now. They shouldn't. It's a stupid light, it means nothing.

Passed a thousand just like this one walking through the zone. The only light in Omega is the artificial kind. Doesn't really bother me. Spent most of my life here. But I've heard of some turians and humans going a little crazy without their daily dose of daytime. Visitors tend to keep their visits short, and the people here full-time were either born here or stranded here. Feel sorry for them, but it's not such a bad place. You just have to know where not to step, and Omega respects those who follow that rule.

We may not have sunlight, but Eden Prime did and look what happened to them.

**[C24 – 15:20:33]**

There goes that goddamn light again.

**[C25 – 01:03:21]**

My stomach's keeping me awake. Hope you don't mind if I do the same to you.

This place is starting to feel like some kind of purgatory. Don't think I've ever been alone with my thoughts for this long. I see the good and the bad. Not dead yet, but not technically living now am I? Every now and then I can hear the music they tend to play at Afterlife, which I don't quite understand. I'm nowhere near the place, but I swear I can hear it. The closer I pay attention to it, the more I can hear the place. Drink glasses clinking against the bar. The knocking of high-heeled dress shoes upon the dance floor. Laughing, cursing, shouting.

I love that place. Was introduced to Aria twice, and she remembered my name the second time. I was amazed, slightly thrilled, and she seemed so confused by that. Started giggling like a schoolgirl and embarrassed the hell out of myself. She nodded to us and returned to her booth. I was pretty much starstruck for several days afterward.

She remembered my name! _My _name!

My friend couldn't believe how I was acting. She was just

I

[Idle for 2 hours.]

[Sleep mode.]

**[C25 – 05:20:04]**

whats a line in the sand

to a star in the black

from its place in the sky

it shows all that we lack

––

every grave for a friend

it can show you much more

a million dead planets

lie dashed upon its shore

––

so what grave end does wait

for earths fortunes to drain

the heavens stay silent

mortalitys our game

lie lie lie lie lie lie

**[C25 – 18:12:56]**

A friendship with an asari can be an odd thing, especially if it turns out to be a good one. When that happens, the only real barrier you face, as a human, is your own mortality. Such a friendship can only last as long as its beneficiaries.

We had known each other for almost thirty years. My first memories were of the orphanage, and of her, moving through the halls, making sure all of the kids were at least minimally content with our situation. She was always very honest with us, never said anything she didn't mean, never fed us any false hope. When I was old enough to live on my own, we stayed in touch. Outside the orphanage, she was the only friend I had in Omega for a very long time.

Shanni. Her name was Shanni.

She was my whole world, and I'm sure the feeling was mutual. We eventually moved in together, one decade led into another. There was a lot of talk of us eventually having a child: a memento of our relationship that would likely outlast us both. We made our plans on my terms. Humans are always the first to go. Eventually, that thought began to destroy me from the inside. What we had wouldn't last. She would live on for centuries more long after I was dust.

Shanni saw my mood swings. She knew me so well, but I don't think she believed that I was using stims until she saw me buying them. I had left the house near the end of the cycle. No one was out, and I had a straight shot to the alleyway. I should've looked over my shoulder more than once. I would've seen that she was following me. I would've seen her, and I could've stopped her.

Just as I touch the pack of stims in the dealer's hand, his eyes look up, locked on something just behind me. He pockets the drugs and draws a gun in one smooth motion and fires a shot, using me as a shield all the while. When he's done shooting he throws me to the ground. Footsteps lead away. Shanni's cries fill in the empty space.

She died in my arms only moments after I reached her. Through the tears and the blood she mouthed something that I hope wasn't true, not after all that I had done to her—to us. But she had always been honest. Never one lie during our many years together. Bleeding out in that grime-ridden alley, she told me she loved me.

We gave her the standard asari funeral, buried in the dark of space, her drift aimed at Thessia. She's probably still on her way there.

Even during my worst days, there was always some satisfaction in knowing that she'd always be there. That when I lay on my deathbed, she'd still be just as beautiful as the day we fell for each other. Watching a lifetime's worth of plans and expectations disappear... I didn't take it well.

I started using until I had lost even more. I was just about at rock bottom when Daniel Stanton found me, shriveled up in a corner booth at Afterlife. He was the best thing to happen to me since Shanni, but it just wasn't enough. He tried to get me sober. He tried for months. I feel terrible that I didn't give him an inch. He came to me with tears in his eyes three nights ago, begging me not to come down here. With all of the aliens gone, I saw it as a good opportunity to scrounge for more stims.

I turned my back on him and snuck down here. Now I'm trapped in a goddamn subsection talking to deadlinked computer. Daniel knew something like this was coming... Not this exact situation, I'm sure, but he knew my habits would get me into trouble. After all he's done for me, I've let him down. I've let Shanni down. But I should've been the one to die in that alley, not her. If it ends here, at least one mistake will be rectified.

But... No, Shanni wouldn't want that. I'm here because of the choices I made. If I had just thought things through instead of taking pleasure in pity, Shanni might still be alive. We'd still be together and I wouldn't be here. And maybe if I had just listened to what Daniel was saying instead of ignoring all in favor of my next fix... I wouldn't be here. One decision away. So many chances.

**[C25 – 19:07:42]**

/aux - "connect"

/65278485-stanton

/msg – I'm sorry. Daniel, if you ever see this, I'm sorry. Having you in my life was more than I ever deserved—and I would've liked what we had to end on better terms than this. I still remember what you said when I left. Thank you, and goodbye.

[pinging "65278485"]

[…]

[…]

[No response.]

[Reattempting.]

[…]

[…]

**[C25 – 20:07:42]**

[Auto attempt.]

[…]

[No response.]

**[C25 – 21:07:42]**

[Auto attempt.]

[…]

[Connection found.]

[…]

[Connected - "65278485"]

[Uploading data cache at 1.2 tb/s]

**[C25 – 21:31:14]**

[65278485]: Daphne? Please tell me you're still there.

[65278485]: I'm on my way.


End file.
